How to Choose Coffee Beans for the Office

You’ve finally done it. You’ve bought yourself a state-of-the-art coffee machine for your office. Now you want to get full value out of your machine by using only the best coffee beans, right? But what does the best coffee beans mean for an office? In this post we will discuss the 4 factors worth considering when choosing the best coffee beans for the office.

Coffee Beans Price:

Coffee beans range in price quite drastically depending on the quality, brand and locality of the bean. Coffee beans range in price from R 160/kg – R500 /kg depending on the below factors.

Quality – The quality of a coffee refers to the amount of Arabica vs. Robusta of which the bean consists of as well as the quality of the green coffee bean. The quality of the green coffee bean is affected by region, the drying and washing process, the altitude at which the coffee beans were grown at, and the envionment in which the beans were grown. The quality of the green beans used does of course directly affect the price of the end product however now as much as the actual brand of the coffee beans.

Brand – The brand name is the biggest determining factor when it comes to how a coffee is priced. The big three Italian coffee brands : Illy, Lavazza and Segafredo command a far higher price than any other on the market. Even local coffee brands which have been around for a number of years can sometimes command a higher price than other newer brands ofsuperior quality.

Locality – Coffee beans are either roasted abroad and then imported or roasted locally. Purely due to logistis, anything roasted locally should be significantly cheaper than coffee roasted overseas due to the added shipping or freighting costs which would be needed to be factored in for imports.

Fair-Trade Coffee – Fair trade coffee is a certification given to coffee beans where the trade process is governed in such a way to ensure that all parties involved receive fair pay. Each coffee registered as Fair Trade needs to pay extra for this certification, and this price is often passed onto the end consumer.

Organic Coffee Beans – The organic trend has swept the fresh product markets by storm and the coffee market is no different. Certified organic coffee is any coffee where the growing process is not adulterated by the addition of chemicals or pesticides AND is certified. Most coffees produced around the world are organic but not registered organic and therefore cannot punt themselves as such. Any organic certification costs money which again is passed onto the end consumer.

Choosing the best coffee beans for your office means choosing a coffee bean brand which tastes good to you and fits into your desired budget. Just keep in mind that 1kg of coffee makes approximately 100 cups of coffee so a difference in kg price of R50 only translates into a difference of R0.50 per cup of coffee.

Coffee Bean Taste:

Probably the most important factor of all, when deciding on the right coffee beans for your office is how the coffee tastes to YOU. Regardless of the quality, brand or roast, no one can tell you what tastes good to you. If you like it, then for YOU it is a good coffee!

Coffee Bean Delivery:

Most coffee companies who roast their own coffee will feature a free delivery service to your office. There is usually a minimum order quantity in order to get free delivery but the minimum order sizes are usually easily achievable for an office – You usually only need to order a minimum of 1kg (100 cups of coffee worth) in order to warrant next day free delivery.

One thing you do want to make sure of is the time between roast and delivery. As a rule of thumb, the closer the coffee is to the roast date, the better and fresher the coffee will taste. Try ensure that your coffee beans are roasted a MAXIMUM of 2 weeks before you receive them.

Coffee Bean Variety:

Whenever there are a number of people involved in deciding whether or not the coffee is good or bad, you are bound to get a number of opinions. Choosing a coffee bean for ones office is no different. One way to satisfy as many people as possible (often you can not satisfy everyone) is to buy a variety of coffee blends for you office and change up the blend either every day or every week. It’s quite nice to have Ethiopia coffee Mondays and Brazilian coffee Tuesdays as people learn the differences between the different coffees blends from around the world.

Supermarket bought Coffee Beans:

What often happens in offices is, coffee beans from supermarkets are bought with their weekly or monthly supermarket shopping trips. These days you can great quality coffee in supermarkets as well as a wide variety of choice at a very decent price. The one downside of buying direct from a supermakret is the inability to know the freshness of that coffee. Even if one frequesnts a relatively busy supermarket where the coffee moves quikcl, it is very difficult to know the journey of that coffee from dispatch from the roastery to the dispatch, to the warehouse and then to the supermarket.

How to start ones office coffee journey:

With a plethora of options, the best way to start is to first determine how much coffee you are likely to buy on a monthly basis. Once you have worked out this quantity you can then calculate how much different kg prices will set you back on a monthly basis and compare that you you intended budget (if you are consuming 10 kg of coffee per month then a R200/kg coffee will cost you R2000 and a R400/kg coffee will cost you R4000).

Once all the boring money calculations are done, you can then start the fun part and start sampling a bunch of different coffee beans. From here, once you have made sure that factors like delivery time, variety and quality are all up to your required standards you are ready to start enjoying awesome coffee everyday.